This invention relates to nail care products and methods and to improved compositions and methods for protecting and beneficially treating nail surfaces.
Cosmetics are preparations that are applied to the human body for beautifying, preserving, or altering the appearance of, or for cleansing, coloring, conditioning, or protecting, skin, hair, nails, lips eyes or teeth. Since the advent of cosmetic preparations, skilled artisans have devoted considerable time and resources toward improving cosmetic preparation functionality, application systems and methods and containment structures. A particular field of cosmetics that enjoys a high degree of continuing innovation is that of nail care products and associated nail care methods. Although most of the innovation in the nail care field deal with improved color compositions and nail primers and manicuring tools, relatively little attention has been devoted toward compositions and methods, which are designed to improve nail health, to prevent nails from becoming dry and brittle and to enhance the luster and shine of nails without brush-on polishes. Given this lack of attention, the need for certain new and useful improvements directed toward nail treatment compositions and associated methods is evident.
The above problems and others are at least partially solved and the above purposes and others realized in a new and improved wax material including a hard wax component, a solvent component and an emulsifier component. The solvent has a high fugacity and flashes or otherwise evaporates out when applied to the surface of a nail in the form of a layer, leaving a very strong and rugged coating of wax upon the surface of the nail. The wax composition is usually contained in a receptacle, and it preferably incorporates 10-80 vol. % of the solvent component, 5-80 vol. % of the hard wax component, and 5-50 vol. % of the emulsifier component.
The hard wax component includes at least one of an insect wax, a vegetable wax and a petroleum wax. Included among the foregoing include carnuba wax, candelilla wax, synthetic jojoba wax, ceresine wax, ozokerite wax, paraffin wax, and synthetic microcrystallines. The solvent has a high fugacity and includes at least one of isohexadecane, isododecane, isooctane, isoeicosane, isoamylene, triisobutylene, cyclopantene, polybutene and hydrogenated polybutene. The emulsifier includes at least one of cetyl alcohol, cetyl stearyl alcohol, stearic acid, myristyl alcohol, cetyl lactate, cetyl palmitate, isopropyl palmitate, isopropyl lanolate, isopropyl myristate, octyl dodecanol, panthenol, lanolin, glyceryl monostearate, glycerin and vegetable glycerin. The wax material may also be furnished with a softener or softening agent, such as one or more of silicone, cyclomethicone, mineral oil, gelled mineral oil, vegetable oil, castor oil, hydrogenated castor oil, cashew nut oil, cottonseed oil, oil of sweet almond, palm oil, hemp seed oil and rectified oil of camphor. The wax material may still further incorporate a plasticizer, such as one or more of a phthalate plasticizer, an adiptate plasticizer, a sulfonamide plasticizer and a benzoate plasticizer, and a colorant, namely, at least one of an inorganic pigment and an organic pigment.
The receptacle containing the wax material may be one of a plurality of receptacles each containing wax material of a different color. The colors of the wax material contained in the receptacles may vary. The receptacles may be discrete or contained, supported or otherwise defined by a pallet or common support structure.
Consistent with the foregoing, the invention also provides methods of applying a protective coating to a nail surface. In a preferred embodiment, the invention proposes a method including steps of providing the wax material of the invention and applying a layer or coating of the wax material to a surface of a nail. In one embodiment, the step of applying includes providing buffing element, introducing a working amount of the wax material upon the surface of the nail, and buffingly acting on the working amount with the buffing element. In another embodiment, the step of applying includes introducing a working amount of the wax material onto the surface of the nail generally in the form of a layer, waiting for the solvent component to substantially evaporate from the layer, and buffingly acting on the layer with a buffing element.